


Rebirth

by sanctum_c



Series: Tifa Week 2020 [6]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Character Study, First Meetings, Gen, metaphorical death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:49:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26920138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Tifa Lockhart, Mayor's daughter, died at Nibelheim.
Series: Tifa Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827742
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt '“I’ll never be perfect, but at least now I’m brave. Now my heart is open and I can finally breathe.” brand new me by alicia keys.'

Tifa Lockhart – mayor’s daughter died on the cold steel of the Mount Nibel mako reactor. An ignoble death; seeking revenge against the murderer of her father, she lasted scant seconds before her disarming, a burning strike across her torso and a plummet into the netherworld.

She sank down into darkness and continue to sink. Mount Nibel rose high above her and she fell further.

Nibelheim rose around her and vanished into darkness above.

She sank and sank.

Other places, other vistas, other views must have drifted past but she experienced none of them. They would have drifted up and above her head. Sight unseen.

Something carried her down into darkness.

And there at the bottom of the world, in the utter darkness of the Midgar slums, Tifa Lockhart, orphan was born.

She lived somehow.

Her descent into the abyss was reversible – of course it was. She could clamber out under the shadow of Midgar. Cross the long stretches and ocean separating her from her previous home.

Could, but to do so? Exhausting.

Life in the dark was exhausting. The feedback loop; if she was outside of Midgar, or on top of the plate, the climb back - the return home - would be easier than struggling to survive here. But surviving outside the confines of the city-

Tifa Lockhart, guide, knew the trails and quirks of Mount Nibel. She knew the area surrounding Nibelheim. Knew its flora and fauna. Tifa Lockhart, guide, knew nothing of Midgar or its surroundings. The snarl of streets comprising Sector Seven confused for weeks, gloom and harsh artificial light hiding so much in the hours distant from sunrise and sunset.

She could learn again- But to do so would take time. She was weak and injured; her chest bearing the indelible mark Sephiroth left upon her. Something else for now. Something less strenuous. She would need to live here at the bottom of the world. Here where Shinra dwelled.

Too long to realise there others like her lived here. The other children of Nibelheim would surely help her with revenge. The town could not have survived – not with so much fire, but there were no reports of its destruction. Sephiroth declared dead somehow, but the place where he fell was not marked.

Her former friends were here. Cloud should be here.

The latter was not; SOLDIER operated out of Junon – she could not hope to track Cloud here.

She found the former broken.

Not all of them had persisted in the shadows like she. Many found a way to scramble up towards the light, selling their souls to Shinra as they did. Tifa hung back on tracking them down, unable to reach out to these grey drones, the corporate suits who rushed to the Shinra building and the upper plate each morning. Who descended in the evenings to wile away miserable hours before repeating the process.

There was no fire in their actions. They cared little of what had gone before. They strove only to please Shinra, to gain benevolence and a higher station in the world. A galling sacrifice for a fractional step up and away from the bottom of the abyss.

They could not help her. But others could. The others who hated Shinra. Who would not let the darkness consume them. Who fought back. Jessie and Biggs. Wedge. Later Barret and his daughter Marlene. The ones who confirmed Tifa’s own suspicions about Mako energy were correct. A limited resource; continuing on their current path risked annihilation.

Together they would strike back.


End file.
